Battaijon
nve nt I
72 No. 61
12 Pages
6te 8am. *
Wednesday, November 28, 1979
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Correction
A woman whose picture appeared on page 1 of Monday’s
Battalion was incorrectly identified. The woman is Evelia
Jasso, owner of Martinez Bakery in Bryan, which sells
patent medicinal herbs. The Battalion regrets the error.
Weightroom restriction
equally enforced —
now
By ANGELIQUE COPELAND
Battalion Reporter
Until Tuesday, at least one student who
is not an intercollegiate athlete had been
allowed to use the Deware Fieldhouse
weight facilities by weight coach Mike
Flynt — against a policy he initiated in
September.
When told. Athletic Director Marvin
Tate said he would end all special pri
vileges and the policy would be strictly
enforced from now on.
When asked about use of the room by
non-athletes, Flynt said that because he
was in charge of the weight room he could
allow who he wanted to use the facility as
long as he was there to supervise them.
“There’s nothing strange about this,”
Flynt said. “I run the weight room. I de
cide who comes in. I don’t have to explain
myself to anyone.”
In an interview earlier this semester,
Flynt said he had closed the weight room to
the general student body because of prob
lems with students misusing the equip
ment and because he did not have the time
to supervise its use by anyone but the
athletes.
One exception to this rule, a female stu
dent at A&M who holds no athletic status,
was allowed to use the room as a “favor to a
friend,” Flynt said.
He said it was a “privilege of rank” to
allow some people special considerations.
Flynt also said that Tate was aware of the
situation.
Tate said that he had not known the
woman was using the facilities. The
woman’s father had called him and asked if
she could get advice on a weight training
program from Flynt, Tate said, but he had
no idea the girl was working out in the room
on a regular basis.
Tate said that he would talk to Flynt and
that no further special weight room pri
vileges would be granted to anyone.
When asked for comments on why she
was allowed in the weight room, the
woman said only, “I think you should talk
to Marvin Tate.”
Carter says U.S. hostages
being treated ‘disgracefully’
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Carter
says the 49 American hostages in the be
sieged U.S. Embassy in Tehran have been
treated disgracefully, and some of them
have been threatened at gunpoint.
At a briefing Tuesday for state leaders
from New Hampshire, Vermont and
Maine, Carter drew a bleak picture of the
plight of the captives which was at odds
with what others have reported of the pris
oner treatment, and the general impress
ion that has been left by tbe 13 women and
blacks who already have been freed.
He was reported as saying, “The hos
tages are not being treated well.
“They have not been permitted to speak
a word. They’ve been threatened at times
at pistol point and encouraged to make
statements contrary to their own inclina
tion.
“They’ve been kept, now, with hands
and feet tied, for 23 days. They have not
been permitted to speak. When they have
spoken, to say ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Good
Luck’ they have been punished.
“This is a reprehensible thing and a dis
grace to everyone who believes in civiliza
tion and decency.”
Carter’s comments, many of which were
extracted during a question and answer
period, appeared to be a warm-up for his
televised news conference tonight which
will be his first time to be quizzed by repor
ters about U.S. efforts to secure the release
of the hostages.
He also said the captives had not been
permitted to change clothes, bathe or have
any exercise since the ordeal began Nov. 4.
Carter said his two major commitments
are “to stand for the honor of the country
and its basic principles...and to work as
best we can for the safety and release of the
hostages.”
“Perhaps we ve had some success be
cause they have not been seriously injured
or killed.” he said.
An unidentified White House official
also told reporters of “growing evidence
that the hostages have been more harshly
treated than is generally reported and
those holding them would like the world to
believe.”
It is important, he said, that “the people
of the United States and around the world
understand the behavior” of the Iranian
militants.
December graduates have priority
Jogger meets Santa
Backlog delays degree checks
(idle Dyer, a sophomore physical education major,
ked Santa Claus for a new pair of shorts Tuesday.
|anta was part of Texas A&M University Forest Club’s
Ihristmas tree sale. The trees are for sale, at a cost of
about $12, from 2 p.m. until dark on weekdays and noon
until dark on weekends at the west end of the Forestry
Building. Battalion photo by Lynn Blanco
mbassy is booby trapped
o prevent rescue attempts
>n
ional gloss
11.95
l/ICE
i-801!
EN
United Press International
EHRAN, Iran — The Moslem students
ling 49 Amerieans hostage in the U.S.
bassy here say they have rigged the
ipound with explosives,
i the meantime there have been several
;r developments in the crisis now in its
h day.
President Carter has charged the
litants are mistreating their captives
Bgracefully” but has pledged to protect
[honor of the United States at the same
lehe works to protect safety of the pris-
}rs. (See Carter story elsewhere this
)
After a very short session the next
ijordiplomatic move at the U.N. Secur-
Council was postponed until Saturday.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini said the
[stages, whose “act of espionage has been
ven to the Iranian nation, would be put
trial as spies, but he did not specify
i.
At the ayatollah’s command other Ira
ni military forces have been mobilized.
A U.S. carrier force is headed for the
rby Persian Gulf.
he 79-year-old ayatollah and the stu-
its holding the embassy since Nov. 4
mt Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi re
ed to Iran. In New York, doctors re-
iVed another gallstone from the shah’s
duct Tuesday and sources said he may
Jum to his exile home in Mexico by
iiday.
|A communique by the students in con-
pi of the embassy said they have booby-
pped the compound after receiving in-
frnation of an “attempt to save or hurt the
hostages, by American agents scaling the
(embassy) walls and dragging people into
the embassy of spies.” They said the plot
was planned to be carried out during ex
pected mass rallies Thursday and Friday,
Moslem holy days.
“It should be said here that the grounds
inside the spyhouse and the walls around
it, particularly where the hostages are
being held, are extensively covered with
explosive materials and mined. Therefore,
coming near these points in anyway should
be avoided,” the students said.
The students appealed to the crowds to
“avoid coming near the embassy walls, so
that the U.S. agents may be recognized in
case of a decision to implement the plot,
and receive their punishment. ”
Despite the warning, the.main street in
front of the embassy was packed with peo
ple Tuesday afternoon.
The U.N. delay in action was also re
portedly designed to avoid any possible
provocation during Moslem holy days
when emotions are high and there are large
crowds. The holy period ends Friday.
Acting Iranian Foreign Minister Abol Has-
san Bani-Sadr is scheduled to arrive in New
York for Saturday’s council debate.
Khomeini, in his statement said he re
jected any U.S.-influenced investigation
into the crisis and added that any probe
into charges against the shah could only be
carried out in Iran “because the evidence
to the crimes exists in Iran.”
“Our nation does not agree with the for
mation of this so-called Security Council,
whose task has already been set,” he said of
the upcoming debate.
Special military precautions also were
taken by Iranian forces who were readied
for a possible general military mobilization.
The ayatollah called for mobilization of
“two million gunmen in a statement Tues
day from his headquarters in Qom, a city
whose airspace was declared off-limits to all
air traffic. Alitalia airlines whose flights en
ter Qon was warned airliners would be shot
down if they flew over the city.
By LOUIE ARTHUR
Battalion Staff
“I’m sorry, but you’re missing some re
quired credits. You won’t be able to gradu
ate this semester.”
Those words, from a student’s academic
adviser or department head, represent a
leering, fearsome monster living in the
back of every graduating senior’s mind —
the fear that a phone call will wipe out an
anticipated graduation date.
The degree check is a Texas A&M Uni
versity system designed to prevent such a
last-minute panic. Before graduation, the
registrar’s office conducts a degree check
for the prospective degree candidate.
Many students have expressed concern
about a lack of efficiency in the degree
check system — in particular, the amount
of time needed to complete the check.
Col. Robert H. Baine, assistant regis
trar, said one reason for the delay is the
backlog of work created by students who
fail to obtain degree checks before their last
semester.
“The priority has to go to the people
graduating,” Baine said. He shifted staff
members from working on other degree
checks so that December graduates’ checks
would all be completed in time.
Baine said an early degree check (re
quested the semester prior to graduation)
benefits the student, his department and
Baine s office. All his office has to do is
update a student’s folder when graduation
approaches.
“My area of responsibility is seeing that
the student graduates,” he said. “The ear
lier I can do this, the easier it is for me. We
try for a minimum amount of confusion and
uncertainty.”
“We’ve gone from 10,000 to 32,000 stu
dents and we still do it (degree checks) the
same way,” Baine said. “We do it all by
hand. We use calculators to figure out the
GPRs.”
Most other schools do degree checks
through the departments only, not through
the registrar’s office, Baine said. Some of
these schools use computers for the checks,
but they are having a few problems.
“I’ll be long retired before we get com
puters,” Baine said. “I need to be assured it
will work. If the system went out in the
middle of the semester and we had to start
over by hand, we’d be lost.”
Baine said the system at A&M is better
than at other schools because it is a “double
check” system.
“Few if any fail to graduate from a lack of
a degree check,” he said. “It’s all pretty cut
and dried. Any that apply and don’t make it
— it tears me apart.”
Baine said his office tries to have the
checks completed before pre
registration so a student can be certain ab
out which courses he must take in order to
graduate.
“If we don’t finish in time, the only thing
I can do is apologize,” he said. “Go back
and see your adviser. Go ahead and pre
register. If anything needs adjustment, we
can do it during add-drop week. ”
Baine said his office is working on De
cember, May and August graduates now.
All those who want to graduate in August
are urged to request their degree check by
January.
nited Way reaches 61%
if $75,000 campus goal
pi
icked
JECT
jjAs of last Friday, the campus United
f ay contributions and pledges totaled ab-
t $45,790, said Don Hellriegel, campus
irman of Brazos County United Way.
Ss is 61.1 percent of the campus goal of
5,000.
Total contributions and pledges are now
out $8,820 higher than the final total last
-‘ar, Hellriegel said, a 23.8 percent in-
feasc over last year.
Hellriegel said all donations and pledges
should include a pledge-contribution card
including the following information: name
of contributor, amount contributed or
pledged and unit designation. Anyone
needing more pledge cards can get them
through Hellriegel.
This is the final week of the United Way
drive.
Editor nominated
for spring Battalion
By MERIL EDWARDS
Battalion Staff
Roy Bragg, a senior journalism major at
Texas A&M University, was nominated for
editor of The Battalion by the Student Pub
lications Board Tuesday night.
Bragg’s name will be submitted for con
firmation today to Dr. J.M. Prescott, vice
president for academic affairs.
“I want to learn something as editor,”
Bragg said. “I want to do something with
the paper.”
Bragg said he wants to decrease the
number of editors and increase the number
of reporters.
“There are too many chiefs at the Batta
lion now,” he said, “and not enough In
dians.”
He said a smaller number of editors
would allow for more reporters, and that
this system would generate more money to
pay a smaller staff and keep top journalists.
Reporters now are paid $40 a week, and
editors up to $90.
The editor’s position will be more than a
title, Bragg said in an interview after the
board’s selection. He said he plans also to
function as a managing editor, and repor
ters will answer more directly to him than
they have to the editor in the past.
Bragg worked as a staff writer for The
Battalion in the spring and as city editor in
the summer and fall.
Bragg said The Battalion is the only
newspaper read by most students at Texas
A&M University. And because of this, dis
semination of news in a fast, factual and
understandable fashion is a necessity.
He noted that The Battalion is a student-
run newspaper designed both as a lab-
classroom for journalism students and a
medium for news about Texas A&M.
Bragg graduated from Bryan High
School in 1975 and has been married for
about Wz years.
He has worked at Safeway for the past six
years as a cashier, stocker, dairy worker,
carry-out clerk, front end manager, office
worker and price marker.
Bragg also works with a comedy acting
troupe in Huntsville called “Eat More
Theater,” and with a similar unnamed
group in College Station. His involvement
includes writing, acting and directing.
“I’ll have to cut down on my other activi
ties next semester,” Bragg said. “Also, I’ll
be taking fewer hours in school to do the
best job possible as editor. ”
Bragg will take over as editor in January.
Other candidates for the position were
this fall’s campus editor Keith Taylor and
news editor Karen Comelison.
Battalion photo by Lee Roy Lcschper Jr.
Texas A&M University’s Student Publications Board nominated Roy
Bragg as Battalion editor for the spring semester.